Tinchy Stryder

It was the weekend when it was announced that women were responsible for each of the UK's top five albums that finally pushed me over the edge. Let me be more specific. It wasn't the fact that Amy Winehouse, Adele and Beyoncé were occupying those top spots that I took issue with – it was the predictable flurry of media reporting, proclaiming that women in music were having some sort of moment.

"We made it to the point where UK music is the hottest thing right now!" screams Tinie Tempah, the 21-year-old London rapper who, in the last four months, has made a rapid rise to pop supremacy, not least thanks to his frolicking hits "Frisky" and "Pass Out". Both were proof that for all of urban music's false starts, Tempah and his comrades (Dizzee Rascal, Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder) could finally boast of developing a profile big enough to sit in the mainstream and allow them to perform at cool shows like tonight's latest gig in the iTunes festival series.

Tinchy Stryder has two No 1 singles to his credit, his own clothing range, and now a joint business venture with Jay-Z. No wonder his lyrics are getting deeper. Charlotte Cripps meets the London-raised rapper

The music industry has a strange relationship with teenagers. Like a loving parent, it spends a small fortune trying to understand what on earth it is they want, before lovingly indulging them with treats.

Arthur Ryan, chairman of Primark, hasn't been photographed in public since founding the chain in 1969. Now Mr Ryan's seclusion is over: after turning up to accept a gong at the Retail Week Awards at London's Grosvenor House on Thursday night, the septuagenarian stuck around and was spotted puffing away on a ciggie with pals outside the Park Lane hotel after midnight.

All of the major record labels threw Brits parties after the awards ceremony on Tuesday night but the hottest ticket was Universal's do, held in the ballroom of London's Mandarin Oriental hotel. A glum-looking Lady Gaga arrived, still wearing her massive bouffant wig, but she was clearly not in the mood to celebrate her triple win. Earlier in the evening she had turned her dressing room into a shrine for her late friend, the fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who committed suicide last week. She then dedicated her performance to him. Inside the party, she chatted briefly to Courtney Love, who was at the next table and was joined by fellow winners Florence Welch and Lily Allen, who took turns DJing. Girls Aloud's Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh arrived to a media scrum – but their bandmate Cheryl Cole was absent, keeping a low profile after allegations about her husband Ashley Cole.